Pet Food Label Secrets Revealed! Know What You Are Feeding Your Dog And Cat

Reading a pet food label, how difficult can it be? You just pick up your regular brand and look at the variety on the front, right? Not so fast! Reading a pet food label isn't as easy as you may think. It's not just ingredients and feeding suggestions. There's also a "secret code" you should know about. The code helps you separate the Chicken Formula from the Chicken Dinner and the Beef and Bacon from the Beef with Bacon. You may be thinking "Aren't they all the same?" and the answer is no.

While pet food labeling is regulated at the federal level, some states have their own labeling laws. Many follow the Pet Food Regulations established by the AAFOC (Association of American Food Control Officials).

The secret of pet food descriptions are dictated by four AAFCO rules...

1) The 95% Rule - The products that fall under this regulation have simple descriptions such as "Chicken Cat Food" or "Beef for Dogs". These foods must contain at least 95% (not including water) of the named ingredient. In this case, chicken or beef. If a food description contains more than one meat, poultry or fish ingredient such as "Chicken and Liver Cat Food" , then both ingredients combined must equal 95%, with the first named ingredient being the highest percentage of the two. The 95% rule does not apply to grains and vegetables, so "Chicken and Rice Dog Food" must still contain 95% chicken.

2) The 25% or "Dinner" Rule - If the named descriptive ingredient falls between 25%-94% of the total product (still not counting water), then the description must include a qualifying word such as "Dinner", "Platter", "Formula", etc. As in the first rule two listed ingredients must have be at least 25% of the total weight combined. So, "Chicken Dinner" only has to contain 25% chicken, while "Chicken and Liver Dinner" only has to contain 25% of the two combined. (Minimum of 3% of any named ingredient.) Unlike the first rule, the 25% rule applies to all food, not just meat sources.

3) The 3% or "With" Rule - This is where things get a little sneaky. Any ingredient on a label proceeded by "with" must equal at least 3% of the total weight (minus water). That might sound all right if the food is "Beef with Chicken" (95% beef, 3% chicken), but how does it sound in this form..."Dog Food with Beef"? Yep, that tells you that it only has to contain 3% beef! (Makes you wonder what the other 97% contains doesn't it?)

4) The "Flavor" rule - There is no percentage attached to an ingredient described as a "flavor". There only needs to be an amount sufficient enough to be detected by test methods. As you can probably guess "Chicken Flavored Cat Food" may contain very little chicken. In this case it doesn't even need to be chicken as we normally think about it, but instead can be chicken meal or chicken by-products.

Premium Food - Looking down the pet food aisle you may be attracted to foods listed as "Premium" or "Gourmet". These descriptive words have no requirements attached to them, so while a "Premium" food may sound like it's higher quality food, in reality it doesn't have to be any better than anything else on the shelf.

Now you know the secret of pet food descriptions and can be confident that the next time you're scanning the different varieties of food for your best friend you'll be able to tell the difference between "Beef for Dogs", "Beef Dinner", or "Dog Food with Beef".

Jill Richards is the Owner/Operator of "Have Leash, Will Travel - Pet Sitting" in Aurora, CO and offers t-shirts, sweatshirts, and stickers to Pet Professionals, Animal Rescue Workers, Anti-Breed Ban/BSL Fighters, and Pet Lovers through USPetPros.com

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Pet Insurance - Things To Know About Pet Insurance

Being a proud owner of pet can be joy most of time but the medical bills can be expensive at times. The soaring vet bills are often the reason that pet owners worry about especially for old pets. If you are thinking about getting your pets insured you need to ask a few things to before putting your signature on dotted line. Here are few tips on buying the pet insurance.

• Know your pet

• Buy the full coverage

• Technology coverage like MRI and Scans

• Ask the vet for recommendations

The insurance is often based upon the age, health and the life expectancy of the pet. If your pet is in excellent health now and is not having any particular problems or is not a rare breed, chances are you might be able to obtain the reasonable quote for the insurance.

The rising cost of the pet health care often takes three figures quite easily. The estimated cost of pet care for life time is often estimated at average of $2000 to $4000 these days. Reading the details of coverage is a great idea that might help you determine the real cost that might be taken by you. If your insurance company is not paying for some common disease of your pet then you should try to find another instead.

Similarly the pet care should be taken the recommendation of your vet in deciding for the insurance too. They are often more familiar to the basics of the insurance plan for pet and can give you some good tips on that as well. One very important thing to ask the insurance experts about which doctor they have on the list. If the treatment is not satisfactory, or the company is cutting corners at that you better find some other one.

For more information on Pet Insurance and Pet Insurance visit my website.

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Pet Health Insurance Reimbursement Models - What Pet Owners Need to Know

Besides the obvious limits that are stated in an insurance policy such as annual maximum, per-incident maximum, deductible, and co-pay amounts, there is another variable that isn't so obvious that is an important factor in determining how much a pet owner is reimbursed by the insurance company when they file a claim. Insurance companies figure their reimbursements in one of three ways:

1. A simple computation based on whatever the veterinarian charges. For example, if the total invoice is $2000 and everything on the invoice is a covered item and the deductible is $100 and the co-pay is 20%, the reimbursement would be:

$2000 - $100 = $1900 x 80% = $1520.

This is the easiest method for pet owners to understand and generally gives pet owners the largest reimbursements. Since it is based on the actual charges of the veterinarian, it keeps up with inflation. Most of the newer companies use this method. One criticism of this method is that premiums may rise faster because the only limit on reimbursements of covered expenses is whatever the veterinarian charges.

2. The reimbursement is computed from a "benefit" schedule based on the veterinarian's diagnosis. Sometimes these reimbursements can be as much as method #1. However, sometimes they can be significantly less than method #1. For example, if your pet gets sick with pancreatitis and the maximum reimbursement allowed for this diagnosis is $865, but your submitted claim is for $2000, you'll get reimbursed $865. Using method #1, you would get reimbursed $1520. Most cases of mild pancreatitis will be less than $865, but a severe or complicated case can cost thousands of dollars. Because the benefit schedule does place limits on what the insurance company will pay, the premiums may be lower for this type of policy.

3. The reimbursement is based on a fee schedule of "reasonable and customary" fees for your geographic area of the country. Each charge on the invoice for a procedure or product is compared to the fee schedule and the insurance company will reimburse according to the schedule. If your veterinarian charged more, then you are responsible for the difference.

Fees can vary for a certain procedure from practice to practice even within the same city. Each practice has it's own unique philosophy of practice and overhead which will affect all it's fees. For example, if your pet is referred to a specialist, does the fee schedule take this into account? A specialist's fees are higher because they have more expertise and may use higher technology e.g. CT scan or MRI or perform more sophisticated surgery than your regular veterinarian. Perhaps even your regular veterinarian uses ultrasound, endoscopes, laser surgery or more advanced dental equipment, etc. Perhaps they have a newer hospital and a larger staff. Judging whether a veterinarian's fees are reasonable should not be measured by what is considered customary according to an insurance company's fee or benefit schedule, but on the perceived value you receive in return for the fee.

If you look closely at the fine print in the policies of companies that figure reimbursements using method #1, some also state that they pay benefits based on what is "reasonable and customary." For the time being though, they use that as a fall back - only when a fee for a procedure seems way out of line. Will there be a time in the future when they are forced to use the reasonable and customary fee schedule routinely as a limit on reimbursements in order to keep their premiums competitive?

Unless they are updated frequently, benefit schedules and fee schedules can become obsolete due to inflation.

Be sure and take into account how a company figures your reimbursement when making the decision to purchase pet health insurance.

Dr. Kenney is a practicing veterinarian in Memphis, Tennessee. He author's a blog ( http://petinsuranceguideus.com ) devoted to teaching pet owners how pet insurance works and to helping them make informed and wise decisions when selecting a company and policy to cover their pet.

The blog also offers the latest information on each of the pet insurance companies that insures pets in the United States along with podcasts, videos and even a free Pet Insurance Toolkit to help pet owners when researching pet insurance.

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